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This week marks a landmark for television syndication as both The Wire and The Sopranos make their basic cable syndication debuts. There is presidence for this move, as syndicated episodes of Sex And The City have been airing on TBS for a couple of years now. Admittedly I never really watched SATC, but from the couple of episodes I saw I was unsure how the transition to basic cable would work. From what I’ve heard, fans of the show enjoy seeing the re-runs, but it is lacking something its unedited version.

However if editing content was an issue for Sex And the City, then it is going to be a much bigger deal for The Sopranos and The Wire, both of which have a lot more that needs to be “cleaned up” for basic cable. I have been a fan of Tony and the gang for many years now, but I am unsure if I actually saw all of the early episodes (and if I did I cannot remember them off the top of my head). This past season, the fourth for you counting at home, of the Baltimore drug-war set drama was the first that I watched. I was able to thoroughly enjoy the depth of story and character that the show brought to the table, and I am now curious to see how it all began.

It should be interesting to see how both of these shows hold up. The Sopranos will begin airing on A&E Wednesday, January 10 at 9:00 pm EST with 2 back to back episodes airing in a 2 hour, 11 minute time block. The debut episodes repeat throughout the night, with new episodes airing weekly in the same time slot. The Wire debuts the same night on BET, also at 9:00 pm EST, with a special three night premier continuing through Friday. It falls into its regular time slot of 9:00 pm EST Thursday nights the following week, getting a full hour and a half to air each episode. Both shows originally aired commerical free on HBO in one hour timeslots, though episodes could last anywhere from 45 minutes to the full hour, so it is tough to predict just how much footage will be eliminated in syndication.

If you have never seen either of these shows, I high recommend checking one or both of them out. I think even in their edited forms, the writing and general storytelling are strong enough to keep you captivated. I’ll let you know if I still feel that way after viewing my first “watered down” episodes later in the week.

The NFL season was one of parity, whether that be among the bad (in the NFC) or the good (in the AFC). The fact that so many teams were still mathematically eligible to make the playoffs as of last week shows how wide open things will be this weekend. Every one of the eight teams competing this weekend won their final game of the season, save for the Dallas Cowboys (which is saying something when you consider Denver, Cincinnati, and Tenessee couldn’t win to get in). There are some intriguing match-ups Saturday and Sunday, so let’s take a look and make some predictions.

Kansas City kicks off the playoff weekend by going into the dome in Indy to take on the Colts. It’s well advertised that Indy’s rush defense has been b-r-utal all season, so the new NFL record holder for attempts in a season, Larry Johnson, looks like just the type of player the Chiefs can ride to an upset victory Saturday. Not so fast. While Indy hasn’t been terribly impressive over the past month, they are still unbeaten at home this season, and I’m not sure that the K.C. defense can stop Peyton and company. Take the Colts to win and cover their 7 point spread.

Saturday night the action switches over to the NFC as Dallas visits Seattle. I’m expecting a high scoring affair in this one as both sides feature talented quarterbacks with multiple receiving threats to throw to. Dallas was in prime position to lock up the NFC East a few weeks ago, and possibly a first round bye, but have been going the wrong direction. This is not the position to be in entering the playoffs. Seattle is a better team than their record indicates, as mid-season injuries to key players hurt them a bit. Also, Seattle is one of the toughest places to go on the road and win a game at in the NFL. The pick is Seattle, covering the meager 3 point spread.

Up first on Sunday are the J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets! going up to Foxboro to battle the New England Patriots. Bill Belichick disciple Eric Mangini has led the Jets to the playoffs as one of the more surprising teams in the NFL this season. These two teams split the season series, each winning on the road in close games. I expect this one to be close as well. The Patriots have been here before though, and that experience gives them the edge. Look for the Pats to defend home turf, but if you were to wager (legally, of course) take the 8.5 points and the Jets.

The final match-up of the weekend is a battle of NFC East rivals, with the New York Football Giants making the short drive down to Philadelphia to face the resurgent Eagles. On paper this seems like an easy one. Philly has been one of the hottest teams in the league in the second half, behind the strong play of backup quarterback Jeff Garcia, while the Giants have been in disaray, just barely making the playoffs with an 8-8 record. This is the playoffs though, and these teams are fierce rivals. Nothing comes easy with those two factors in play. I’m going with the outright upset here, as the Giants won’t let Tiki ride off into the sunset quite yet. In a stunner, take the G’nts and the 7 points, but they won’t need them.

AFC North – I knew BAL had talent, but didn’t expect them to be this good

Cincinnati (11-5) 8-8, 2nd place

Pittsburgh (10-6) 8-8, 3rd place

Baltimore (8-8) 13-3, 1st place

Cleveland (4-12) 4-12, 4th place

AFC East – It’s so easy to confuse NYJ and MIA . . .

Miami (11-5) 6-10, 4th place

New England (10-6) 12-4, 1st place

Buffalo (5-11) 7-9, 3rd place

New York (3-13) 10-6, 2nd place

AFC South – Better than advertised. Turns out TEN was only half a year away.

Indianapolis (13-3) 12-4, 1st place

Jacksonville (8-8) 8-8, 3rd place

Tenessee (3-13) 8-8, 2nd place

Houston (3-13) 6-10, 4th place

AFC West – My best effort in the AFC, nobody is terribly off

San Diego (11-5) 14-2, 1st place

Denver (11-5) 9-7, 3rd place

Kansas City (10-6) 9-7, 2nd place

Oakland (3-13) 2-14, 4th place

AFC Playoff Seeds – only got 3/6. Could make excuse that CIN and DEN almost made it, but this ain’t horseshoes.

Indianapolis, 3rd seed

San Diego, 1st seed

Cincinnatti, didn’t make playoffs

Miami, didn’t make playoffs

Denver, didn’t make playoffs

New England, 4th seed

There are always going to be a few shockers (NO, NYJ, MIA, BAL), but I can’t be ashamed of this freshman effort. I miscalculated how much of an impact strength of schedule would make on a team, either good or bad. Next season I won’t let that fool me. Playoff picks coming tomorrow.

We’re creepy and we’re kooky, mysterious, and spooky. We’re all together ooky: Adam’s family. Case in point – Death Pool ’07.

My mom, in a trend that stems through her entire side of the family, has a theory that famous people die in threesomes. It’s not a totally unique belief, as I have come to find others who have heard about this as well. It’s become a running joke in the family though, as every time a notable personality passes away we begin the lookout for who will join them. Sometimes it works out, other times you get an extra body or two, but mostly you end up reaching for a third. The accepted deadline for the passings is somewhere between a week and 10 days, but of course Mom Rules are in affect so things can, and often do, change. Basically for a person to count though, at least two people have to have been familiar with them.

Things got ratcheted up to notches unheard of this past Thanksgiving when we decided to conduct the first ever family Death Pool. Myself, Mom, Dad, and my aunt (on my mom’s side – like you needed to ask) have each chosen 20 notable names and marked them for death in the coming year (retroactive to the 1st of December). My brother, citing morals and karma as reasoning, declined to participate, but he is taking an active role as resident score (crypt?) keeper. He said that ultimately it was his friends who talked him out of participating, though they were all quick with names for him in case he did decide to sell his soul. Evidently these same friends are starting to get creeped out by the family’s Nostradamus-like penchant for properly prognosticating perishment.

We’re a month into the competition and already three unfortunate listees have moved on to the other side: Joseph Barbera, Gerald Ford, and Saddam Hussein. Whether I should be proud or ashamed, I currently hold a 2-1-1-1 lead. The way the names have been getting crossed off, I shudder to think what happens if the trend continues. For those of you curious enough to follow the action, here is my list. May you not find your name below:

It’s been the talk of the fight sports world for the last month, and last night it came and went with a bang. The most hyped event in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC 66 featured a main event of Chuck Liddell, one of the two most dominant men in the sport (the other being Pride’s Heavyweight champ, Fedor Emelianenko) taking on perhaps the biggest cross-over name in MMA, Tito Ortiz, in a battle for Lidell’s light heavyweight title. I am happy to say that the event lived up to the build. For quick results, the winners are listed in bold.

The opening bout of the evening featured The Ultimate Fighter season 3 winner Michael “The Count” Bisping beating Ed Schafer by TKO in the first with a flury of viscious bombs (a trend throughout the night). Bisping, an undefeated MMA fighter out of England, withstood a shaky opening few minutes before taking control of the bout and showcase some dominant striking ability. The Count will be a major player sooner rather than later in the light heavyweight division.

The second fight feature Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovsky returning from injury to defeat Marcio Cruz in similar fashion to Bisping’s previous victory. I have seen highlights of Arlovsky’s past fights with him being dominant and agressive, but the only full fight I had seen of his was the b-r-utally boring third fight he had with Tim Sylvia, where he evidently injured his leg in the opening round and couldn’t do a thing on it for the rest of the fight (which thankfully explains the suckitude of the fight). Arlovksy looks like a bad ass, with wild hair a full beard, and fangs. If indeed he is completely healed up, and it seemed that way from this fight, he should be headling the heavyweight divsion by the early summer.

Jason McDonald continued to make a name for himself as he scored a minor upset over Chris Leben via choke out. McDonald has now submitted two Ultimate Fighter competitors in a row in fairly impressive fashion. I am interested to see how he will do against a higher class of fighter going forward.

In the second upset of the evening, Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine pummeled Forrest Griffin to tears (literally), continuing the early TKO trend of the fight card. Jardine looked really impressive hear against a legitimate second tier fighter in Griffin. If he is able to get one more impressive win he may be in line for a light heavyweight title shot by the summer.

With the action moving at a quick pace we had time to see a fight from earlier in the evening before the event went live on pay-per-view. In another entertaining, action-filled fight, it was was Thiago Alves (a Brazilian fighting for American Top Team, go figure) KOing Tony DeSouza with a brutal knee. DeSouza looked like a homeless man entering the fight with a scruffy beard and thick hair, and he ended up leaving the fight looking like the loser of a bum fight.

Brucer Buffer then informed us it was time for “our maaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnn event of the evening.” Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell successfully and dominatly defended his light heavyweight title by stopping “The Huntington Beach Badboy” Tito Ortiz with a flurry of clubbing shots in the 3rd round. Liddell actually was raining shots down on a prone Ortiz in the first round as well, but the referee must have felt that Ortiz was defending the blows well enough to keep the fight going. The second round saw Ortiz look better, but there was never a moment when Liddell seemed like he was in any serious trouble. The Iceman has dominated the sport of MMA for the last few years, and I would sit here and speculate as to who could possibly beat him, but the answer may have been sitting at ringside during last night’s event.

In what is nothing short of major news for the UFC, they announced officially during the pay-per-view that both top heavyweight talent Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and light heavyweight talent Quintin “Rampage” Jackson have signed deals with the UFC and will be making their Ultimate Fighting Championship debuts at UFC 67.

Rampage fought and defeated Liddell in Pride a few years back, and evidently is the only man to defeat the Iceman and not have the favor returned. Rampage Jackson is one of the most entertaining fighters out there and I am giddy about him signing with the UFC. If you are not familiar with him, check this out: Rampage Bomb.

Cro Cop is one of the top all around talents in MMA, and instantly becomes the top contender (savior?) to take the heavyweight title off of Sylvia. Check out his impressive win over Wanderlei Silva here, via the Cro Cop Kick, in the Pride Open Weight Tournament.

So as we await the seemingly inevitable title fight between Liddell and Jackson, here is the video of their first encounter back in November 2003: Pride Final Conflict.

So I’m watching the Mavericks-Suns game Thursday night, and really what a fantastic basketball game it was, and I can’t help but be taken back by some of the things coming out of the mouths of commentating duo Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins. Now I know that inane soundbites from announcers shouldn’t take me back, after all Al Michaels is single-handedly responsible for diminishing injuries down to single words (a player is no longer out with a strained MCL, he’s simply out with a knee, etc), a trend which it unfortunately seems that 75% of the announcing fraternity has adopted. The thing that irked me about the other night though was how they were talking about Amare Stoudemire’s play.

For those not up to speed on the situation, Stoudemire burst onto the NBA scene straight out of high school (yeah, he’s one of them) in 2002. As a 20 year old that season, and with his only prior competition being overmatched high schoolers, Stoudemire averaged 13.5 points and almost 9 rebounds a game. He went on to narrowly edge out Yao Ming (who had eerily similar stats that season) for Rookie of the Year honors. Amare’s numbers improved the following season, but it was the addition of currently reigning two-time MVP Steve Nash in the 2004-2005 season that things got ridiculous. That year Stoudemire averaged 26 points and 9 rebounds a game in the Suns new ultra paced offense, but the hype went beyond the gaudy stats. What couldn’t translate to paper was the speed and energy that Amare played with, traits that aren’t very commonplace for 6’10” centers.

Last season, Stoudemire severely injured his knee in just his third game and underwent microfracture surgery. Needless to say he did not play again that year, but he was able to return to the Suns at the beginning of this year. That fact that he has been playing from game one this season is a remarkable feat in and of itself, but factor in that the hop is back in his step and the explosion has returned and what you have is an amazing accomplishment of physical perseverence. Amare is averaging 20 points and 9 rebounds in 31+ minutes a night during the month of December. I think it is safe to say he is back. Which more or less brings us back full circle to Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins.

I enjoy listening to Collins and Harlan call games. They aren’t my favorite duo for NBA games (that would be Marv Albert and anybody, recently it has been Steve Kerr who has done admirably holding his own), but I’d put them at a solid number two (better than any pairing on the ESPN/ABC games). I swear they don’t listen to what they are saying sometimes though. Stoudemire turned 24 last month. I think we can all agree that he is still a young man by any measure. However Harlan and Collins were calling his play on Thursday a “vintage Amare” performance. Can something from two years ago really be dubbed vintage? They also went on to say that he reminded them of the way he was playing “back in his prime”. What!? Wouldn’t that insinuate that at the ripe old age of 24, Stoudemire would be past his prime? I don’t know that he’s even reached the prime of his career yet. The guy missed one season with a gruesome injury, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves people!

The thing that does worry me though, is that supposedly the doctor who performed the microfracture surgery on Stoudemire said that in three or four years Amare will have to undergo the same surgery. This news, coupled with an aging Steve Nash, whose own back is starting to become problematic (perhaps in part for carrying the team on his back), gives the Suns this season and next season to win a championship. I don’t think their window goes beyond that, and if in fact the news about Stoudemire needing a second surgery (and perhaps a third or fourth if he keeps playing) is indeed true, I would consider trading him once Nash retires.

By this point in the season we have determined the good, the bad, and the ugly in the NFL. Enter the middle third of the season, the least impactful part of the skid. Sure these games count just as much as any others, but the new season air of whimsy has gone and it is not yet time for that final playoff push. It’s no surprise that this weeks’ Monday night game features the Bears against the lowly Cardinals. The games keep going though, despite a record six teams on bye this week, so let’s get into the picking.

How I Did

7-4-3 ATS, 14-0 straight up (32-37-5, 56-18 for the season).

What I Learned

The book makers are getting scary good. Three pushes last week and another two games within .5 points. That’s over a third of the games played. Despite that I managed to get my first winning record versus the spread since week 2. New Orleans looks like they are going to be competitive all season long, and Bruce Gradkowski looks like he may play himself into the full time starter in Tampa.

What Was Reinforced

Oakland is far and away the worst team in the league, but it wasn’t until this week that they got a spread that reflected that. Also if you can’t play defense you aren’t going to win many games in this league. Detroit, Green Bay, Oakland, Cleveland, and San Francisco would have a hard time stopping a division one college squad from scoring.

What To Expect

Last week was chalk. Every favorite won. Looking over the lines, this week could play out very similarly. Baltimore, Dallas, and Washington should bounce back from tough losses. Oakland should continue to lose. Da Bears should continue to win.

A quarter of the season has passed, so like every other sports site you may or may not visit I may as well gear my thoughts this week towards the season on the whole instead of the immediacy of the past seven days. Same format as always.

How I Did

4-9-1 ATS, 10-4 straight up (25-33-2, 42-18 for the season).

What I Learned

Evidently not that much. I feel pretty confident about choosing who the better teams in the games each week are, but how much better they are seems to be a challenge for me. Baltimore and Chicago both were impressive in their victories, while Oakland and Miami were just as atrocious in losing.

What Was Reinforced

The NFL has been the pillar of parity in sports since the turn of the century, and the bulk of the league will be battling for the wildcard playoff spots in December. I do feel, however, that the scary good and really awful has started to break away from the pack, so here is my version of the ubiquitous best and worst list thus far (and yes, I wrote this sentence just to use the word ubiquitous). First the good, then the bad.

Chicago – the top defense now has an offense to go along with it

Indy – the top offense will carry them to a first round bye

Baltimore – the AFC’s top defense has its best offense in years

San Diego – really complete team that can’t be as unlucky as they were last season

Seattle – a healthy Alexander is the key to this teams long term success

Oakland – would three wins be a successful season at this point?

Tennessee – rookie camp goes all season long

Green Bay – absolutely no defense for Favre’s swan song

San Francisco – similar to Green Bay, but their rebuilding got started last year

Tampa Bay – unless Graodikndofinkseioski is Brady it’s gonna be a long season

What To Expect

Seattle and Chicago should run away in the NFC West and North respectively, but every other division has at least two teams who should push til the end: Jacksonville will push Indy, Baltimore and Cincy will battle, the Jets won’t disappear from the Patriot’s rear view mirror, everyone but Oakland will beat each other up in the AFC West, same with everyone but Tampa in the NFC South, and it is anybody’s division in the NFC East.